Closing summary

We’re going to close down this live blog now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of what’s happened as the results of Thursday’s vote were counted across the European Union:

The UK’s two main parties were severely punished by voters, who flocked to the Brexit party and the Lib Dems in European elections in the UK. Nigel Farage’s single-issue party gained the most votes of any, while the unequivocally anti-Brexit Lib Dems were second overall. The equally pro-remain Greens were behind Labour in fourth, though that represented an increase in the former’s support and a significant decrease in that of the latter. The Tories had an even worse night and fell to fifth, while Change UK was in seventh. The SNP was sixth overall, but first in Scotland – the only constituent country of the UK in which it stands. Plaid Cymru won a seat in Wales, while the Alliance party, Sinn Féin and the DUP did so in Northern Ireland.

Across the European Union, the grip of the main centrist parties was weakened, though there was not the predicted surge among far-right and populist Eurosceptic candidates. Such will be returned to European parliament in larger numbers than ever before but their support did not reach the levels some had predicted. And there was significant success for Europe’s Greens, who recorded their highest ever score.

European election latest results 2019: across the UK

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The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, backed a second referendum on any Brexit deal. Some had criticised what they saw as the party’s equivocating on the issue and the shadow chancellor and close ally of Corbyn, John McDonnell, spoke about Labour backing a vote after the disastrous European election results.

The outgoing prime minister and Tory leader, Theresa May, called the results disappointing. The party was left with just four seats – compared to the Brexit party’s 29 – and a historically low 9.1% of the vote.

Following its victory, the Brexit party set its sights on the UK parliament. Nigel Farage urged his supporters to turn their attention to next month’s byelection in Peterborough and told them to prepare for a possible general election.

The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, insisted a pact among pro-remain parties could have helped him defeat Farage. Cable, who is stepping down, said protest voters had flocked to the Lib Dems and the task for his successor at the head of the party would be how to bring pro-referendum parties together.

If you’d like to read yet more, my colleagues Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot have this:

The elections of the Alliance party’s Naomi Long and Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson have been confirmed on the fifth count in Northern Ireland. Long secured 170,370 votes after transfers, with Anderson retaining her seat after gaining 152,436.

There were jubilant scenes inside the count centre as the results were confirmed. Long’s supporters chanted “Yes she did” as they presented her with flowers in the Alliance colour of yellow.

The DUP’s Diane Dodds had already retained her seat, meaning Northern Ireland has returned three women to the European Parliament for the first time.

Michael Gove will pledge free British citizenship for 3 million EU nationals after Brexit if he becomes prime minister, as well as abolishing the burden of providing proof of settled status, my colleagues – Lisa O’Carroll and Jessica Elgot – write.

Michael Gove to pledge free UK citizenship for 3m EU nationals

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He has given his backing to a campaign by the Conservative party backbencher Alberto Costa, a leading champion of EU citizens’ rights, who said he had spent two months canvassing opinion from leadership candidates on the issue. Costa told the Guardian:

Michael Gove has fully agreed to adopt my proposals and he will publicly announce that it was wrong to put EU citizens on the negotiation table in the first place.

But he will also go further and offer them British citizenship at no cost if he becomes prime minister. This is Michael’s way of saying to EU nationals: I’m sorry, the Vote Leave campaign was never about EU citizens’ rights.

He is unambiguously demonstrating that leaving the EU is not about moving the goalposts of citizens’ rights and accordingly, he has my full support as a candidate for the premiership.

Vince Cable has claimed the Liberal Democrats could have beaten the Brexit party in the European elections if remain forces had formed a pact and said the task for his successor would be how to bring pro-referendum parties together.

Cable said his party, which gained 14 MEPs and came second behind Nigel Farage’s party, said tactical voters had switched to his party in droves, but said more could have been achieved if parties had been prepared to make a pact.

In the event, no great damage was done, but I think we would have actually come out on top if we had been together.

The Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, has openly backed a second EU referendum and said he would vote to remain, as he sought to fend off a torrent of criticism after his party lost both its MEPs in a humiliating rout in the European elections. Leonard has written to Scottish Labour members to say:

As leader in Scotland I accept that constitutional issues have cost us electorally over the last five years and that trust in us has been eroded. We can and we will rebuild that trust.

My intention is to begin to set out a planned way forward over the coming weeks. Starting now, with firmly stating that I back the option to remain and that any Brexit deal should be ratified by a second public vote, one that has clear and credible options for remain and leave.

Leonard is likely to be pressed hard to confirm he wants this new stance on a second EU vote and backing remain to become Scottish Labour’s official policy, particularly at the weekly meeting of his MSPs at Holyrood on Tuesday.

If he does do so, that will boost increasing calls from the shadow cabinet today for Labour to embrace a pro-remain stance but put him at odds with Corbyn, the UK party and pro-leave groupings inside the Scottish party.

Leonard faced a furious backlash from party activists and parliamentarians, with calls for an emergency meeting of the party’s Scottish executive, following the worst election result for the Scottish party since 1910. It lost more than 200,000 votes last Thursday compared to the 2014 European election, coming in fifth behind the Scottish Conservatives.

His pro-remain critics, including Ian Murray MP and Martin Whitfield MP, have accused him of allowing the Scottish party to again become a “branch office” of the UK party under Jeremy Corbyn. They are likely to be furious Leonard ignored repeated calls to adopt a much firmer pro-remain stance before last week’s election.

Senior party sources say they repeatedly told Leonard the party would suffer heavily in the election unless they did so, though those sources acknowledge they underestimated the extent of the backlash from voters.

Earlier, it emerged Sajid Javid would seek the keys to Number 10 once Theresa May stands down as Tory leader (see 2.47pm). The Lib Dems believe his record as home secretary should disqualify him from serious consideration. The party’s home affairs spokesman, Ed Davey, has said:

Sajid Javid’s been running for Tory leader ever since he set foot in the Home Office. Scaremongering about refugees, eroding civil liberties and undermining human rights – it’s all straight out of Theresa May’s playbook.

Javid’s record as home secretary should disqualify him from entering Number 10. We’ve just seen what happens when a terrible home secretary becomes a disastrous prime minister. We don’t need a repeat.

Scotland should hold a second independence referendum next year, the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, says. The country’s first minister made the comments on a visit to Dublin, where she said the latter half of 2020 would be the “right time” for a new poll.

There will be another Scottish independence referendum and I will make a prediction today that Scotland will vote for independence and we will become an independent country just like Ireland, and the strong relationship between our two countries now will become even stronger soon.

I want to see Scotland having the choice of independence within this term of the Scottish parliament, which ends in May 2021, so towards the latter half of next year would be when I think is the right time for that choice.

She criticised the UK government for treating Scotland with “utter contempt” over Brexit during the visit.

We voted over 60% to remain, we have tried very hard in the wake of the UK-wide Brexit vote to find compromises and protect our interests, and we have worked hard across party lines to try to prevent the worst impact of Brexit, and we have been ignored.

Scotland has been treated with contempt by Westminster and people are contrasting that with Ireland, that has been shown real solidarity and support from the European Union.

Suddenly, this idea of being a small independent country in the European Union, we only have to look at Ireland to see the benefits of that and many people are having their eyes opened.

Summary: five takeaways from the European elections

Jennifer Rankin

Here are five things we have learned from the 2019 European elections across the continent.

There are no easy generalisations about European politics. Take the six largest EU member states for a scattergun sample of results. In Germany, Angela Merkel’s long-governing Christian Democratic Union came top. In France, the far-right just eclipsed Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche. While the UK was consumed by Brexit, propelling Nigel Farage’s party to victory. Anti-EU populists won big in Italy, where Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party enjoyed a stunning growth in support. But Socialists led the polls in Spain, while Poland’s nationalist government performed best.

So European politics is becoming more diverse, but a dose of competition may be no bad thing. Populists on the far right and far left have gained more seats, but fell short of the hype and are certain to remain divided. The traditional forces of centre right and centre left have declined, but the surge in support for liberals and Greens means the pro-EU centre remains solid.

Politics is local. The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, was ousted on Monday, after a corruption scandal brought down the far-right Freedom party, leading to the collapse of his government. In neighbouring Hungary, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, gained more seats for his Fidesz party.

More people care about voting in European elections. Turnout climbed to 50.9%, the highest level since 1994 and the first time participation has ever gone up. As the political scientist Catherine De Vries points out, the average hides a lot of variation. Turnout went down in seven countries and only increased a little in five member states.

Catherine De Vries (@CatherineDVries)

Average turnout EP elections clearly up in 2019 compared to 2014 BUT please remember:

Sinn Féin is 'not simply about winning elections', leader says

Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, said the party was “not simply about winning elections” as she reacted to her party’s poor showing in Ireland’s local elections.

The party president was pressed on the performance as she arrived at the Northern Ireland European election count centre in Magherafelt.

She said: “It has been a challenging weekend for us but you see the thing about Sinn Féin is we will meet challenges, we will even get speed bumps on the road.” She denied the party’s support had plateaued in the Irish Republic.

“Absolutely not, we are only beginning, we have plenty more room for growth,” she said. Asked what the prospects of a general election were, she replied: “Very real and have been for some time. But I would be speculating; I don’t know – ask Leo [Varadkar].”

Cyprus: government hails first Turkish Cypriot MEP

Helena Smith

Over in Cyprus, the unprecedented election of a Turkish Cypriot MEP has been welcomed as a triumph of coexistence over ethnic division on the war-partitioned island.

Niyazi Kızılyürek was elected to the European parliament after winning 25,051 votes. In a first, the university professor was fielded by a Greek Cypriot party, the leftwing main opposition Akel, in a move described as symbolic of its “vision for the freedom and reunification of our country.”

Some 5,604 Turkish Cypriots cast ballots, tripling the number of those who voted in the last Euro elections in 2014.

Turkish Cypriot participation creates the conditions for all citizens to understand that Europe can help us overcome problems in [reunification] talks and create the conditions where we could be happy living in a reunited country.

Niyazi Kızılyürek, the first Turkish Cypriot to be elected as an MEP. Photograph: Katia Christodoulou/EPA

The former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat hailed the election, and Akel’s decision to include Kızılyürek on its ticket, as “an incredible development”.

“There are still reasons to be optimistic about the future of our country,” he wrote on social media.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded following an abortive Athens-inspired coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Countless rounds of UN-brokered peace talks to reunite the island have failed.

Kızılyürek , who had campaigned on both sides of the UN-patrolled green line on a pro-reunification platform, greeted his election by saying:

I think it is a special case in itself. It shows that there are many people in our country who are ready to work together for a better Cyprus, for a better Europe.

'This is a vindication of the politics of remain'

The Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, hugged Martina Anderson, the Sinn Féin candidate who received the most first preference votes, upon arriving at the count in Northern Ireland.

“I think it was very important that a pro-remain candidate topped the poll,” she said.

“I think this result is a resounding rejection of Brexit again. It sends the clearest possible message ... I think this is a vindication of the politics of remain, I think it is vindication of the politics of common sense, it’s about us standing together collectively and protecting our rights and interests.”

Pro-remain vote across the UK is strong, says Alliance party leader

Naomi Long, the Alliance party leader, said the pro-remain vote across the UK was the strongest it had been for years. She expressed confidence Brexit could be stopped. “I think we can and if we don’t it won’t be for a want of trying,” she said.

The former Belfast mayor said she would remain Alliance leader despite having to give up her seat in the assembly, expressing hope the term in Europe would prove to be five years.

“There will be no one more delighted than me if this ends up being a five-year term,” she said, adding that Alliance was benefiting from public disaffection with traditional politics in Northern Ireland.

“I think people are tired of the fact that the stale politics of the past isn’t delivering and I think what we are offering for people are solutions to the problems we have, not just more problems,” she said. “I am totally blown away by the result.”